Who has pulled kids from school?

[youngb1978]

Thanks everyone. I am hoping since my DS school board gives out ipads when they are in grade 7 things will be posted on there. I am not worried to much about the younger 2.

 

[Canadian Disney Mom]

Thanks everyone. I am hoping since my DS school board gives out ipads when they are in grade 7 things will be posted on there. I am not worried to much about the younger 2.

That is awesome. Where are you located? I wish they did that here in NB. It would make taking notes etc so much easier.

 

[Blackadder337]

We took our daughter out of school for a week in October for Grades 2, 3 and 4, and she doesn't know it yet but we'll be pulling her out again this october for 6 days. I was a little worried about this year because she's in grade 7, but then yesterday she brought home a field trip form for the first day we are away and she wasn't that keen on doing the field trip anyway. So now I feel much better, and she'll be happier knowing that instead of a boring field trip, she'll be headed to WDW-POR But much like many have said, on years where we go away, we've always given the teacher as much notice as possible and we take homework with us. Usually our daughter powers through most of it in one day on a rainy / relax day. So it should be good

 

[allybabba98]

I have pulled the my boys out, we normally travel in September as that is the quiet time for my work. We never had an issue with the teachers and at that time of year not much work was missed. I have decided that the next time we go (probably 2018) I will go the last week of August instead. My oldest got really anxious with the work he would be missing. That being said if a trip happens (like my DH going for a conference in Orlando) an impromptu trip may occur. Fingers crossed.

 

[starvenger]

Pulled my kids out for two weeks last October starting with Thanksgiving week (Orlando + Disney Cruise). This year my youngest is in Gr 1 and the older one is in Gr 4 advanced program so I don't want to pull her if I can help it.

If we do, though, it would likely be first week of January, when everyone is getting back into the swing of things.

As others have said, give the school/teachers as much of a heads up as possible, so they can give you an idea of what to catch up on while they're away.

 

[youngb1978]

That is awesome. Where are you located? I wish they did that here in NB. It would make taking notes etc so much easier.

We are in ontario..I am not sure if all school boards do this. This is the second year.

 

[Blackadder337]

We are in ontario..I am not sure if all school boards do this. This is the second year.

Southwest Ontario grade 7 here.... no ipads But I agree it would be nice!

 

[disney k family]

We also take our kids (grade 3 and grade7) out of school for Disney World. This year they will both miss 8 days at the end of November-beginning of December. We always give their teachers plenty of notice and take work with us. Most years the teachers just have the kids keep a journal or have them do some work on dream box.

 

[TommyJK]

We've pulled our kids out a couple of times (and are doing so again in January). They are in Gr. 2 and 5 this year.

We always try to mitigate their missing school in a few ways:

1. We look for a week to do it that has PA day so there is one less missed day (4 days missed instead of 5)
2. We talk to the teachers well ahead of time and ask to get work for them to do to keep-up as best as possible. Typically it has been:

• math lessons that they would have been doing for the given week. It's usually a few sheets of lessons/work in whatever unit they are learning at the time. These have been easy to plow through on the plane to and from.
• Some reading to do throughout the vacation. On non "park" days we'll get the kids to do about 30 minutes of reading each night before bed. Fair trade-off IMO for getting to miss school and have fun.
• Keep a daily journal of what they did each day. Nothing too intensive, but a way for them to remember the key parts of their trip. Ususally the teach has asked them to present to the class a small report/presentation of their trip.
• On our last trip too, our older son's was doing a unit on Gears and Pulleys for science so they asked us to look for Gears and Pulleys while we were away (and there were a TON in the various parks) so it was a bit of a fun scavenger hunt.

Our older son starts middle school next year, so depending on how more intense/structured their daily class learning goes, this will probably be our last year off pulling the kids out for a vacation.

 

[fan1080]

We pulled our daughters from school 5 years in a row back in 2006-2010.

I'll echo pretty much what most everyone else has shared.... it's easier on them in the lower grades, and quite a bit more difficult as they got into Jr high and High school.

But I would do it all over again if given the opportunity. Those family vacation memories are the best.

Happy travels.

 

[thetallone101]

We do it almost yearly and this year we are gone from Dec 1-11 so they will miss 6 days of class - gr. 1 & 7. As long as you give the teachers a heads up it's usually fine.

 

[Yahweh]

I do every year. Both my girls are in Elementary School, with the oldest in Grade 5. Not sure if we'll continue to do that when she is in Jr. High. I hope so

 

[Disney Addicted]

We are in ontario..I am not sure if all school boards do this. This is the second year.

Kawartha Pine Ridge here. My son started Grade 7 this year and they didn't get an iPad. Nice school board you have!

 

[Disney Addicted]

We took our kids out for a 10-day trip to Disney just 4 days after school started. LOL I warned the office before school broke for summer. They were only in grade 1 and 5 then.

IF our plans go through, my son will miss at least 1 week (if not 2 - 2 1/2) in April of grade 7. For that I imagine we will have to co-ordinate pre-vacation and after-vacation work to catch up. Our plans will not be set in stone until December this year however. We are using our Air Miles for this trip.

He will also miss 10 days again (beginning of November) in grade 8. Our family has not been back to Disney since our first trip, and I am determined to go once more before he gets into High School.

 

[bcwife76]

We've pulled our kids out a few times, never a problem. This coming January they will miss 7 days of school (Thurs, Fri and then the whole following week) - grades 1 and 3. Always give our teachers plenty of notice and at the moment, they usually just have to keep a journal and we always take books so they can do some reading, too.

 

[alc571]

We've pulled our son (currently in 6th grade) out twice a year, every year since second grade. We go in the fall, and again in the spring. We try for September and June when it's least disruptive to their learning. They usually haven't started much in September, and we go after the PA Day in June when the report cards are written. The teachers don't usually give him work to do while there, as they understand we don't have time to do it. Last June we did get some work, but I made our son do it before we left. When we got back, the class hadn't even covered everything he did so he was actually ahead of the class.

 

[PensFan]

We leave next Friday for Disney .... our DD is only in Gr 3 but it the first time we have removed her from school for a vacation.

 

[JWal]

When my kids were younger I pulled them out twice for Disney trips (a week each when they were in grades 3 and 6, and 4 and 7) for trips to Disney. Neither of them has problems in school, but the second time we did it my son wasn't too happy because he ended up missing his school soccer tournament. Now my kids are in grade 6 and 9 and I'm planning our next trip so my son only misses 2 or 3 days of school. School is important, but so is family time and you can learn a lot when you travel. If either of my kids struggled in school I likely would have dealt with crowds and visited only during school breaks.

 

[mary lou]

Hello folk
We are in Kw and our kids don't get ipads!
We had a couple of times when the attendance people had an issue with the time we were missing and that vacaton was not an appropriate reason but we went anyway. No call from truancy officers!
I always made the kids do a scrap book type of journal. There are tons of worksheets on line for all the gradesK-12.
Epcot was great for geography,language, nutrition and all kinds of other stuff.
Then the kids hit high school and my kids have learning disabilities so it was an added problem they didnt need

 

[Frozen2014]

Every family has to make their own decision. We went to Disney World in Oct 2014 when our kids were 9 and 5. Then we did a cruise this past spring when our kids were 10.5 and 6.5 (grades 5 and 1). We pulled them out of school both times for a week.

We do a nice trip every 1.5 years, so our next trip, our kids will be 12 and 8, with my older one in grade 6 now. This is the point where we are no longer pulling them out of school even though my older one is a good student. So that means that our trips are either March break, summer or Christmas. We're planning on doing Disney next summer, but because of the weather we've selected Disneyland (hot but no rain or humidity) instead of Disney World (i.e. rain and humidity). We'll just have to face hotter weather, crowds and higher prices.